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Original post by Antheus Quote: anyone remember how all joystick games used to ask you to calibrate Cheap hardware. Nobody asks Airbus pilots to calibrate theirs.

But they're still required to test theirs before each take off as part of pre-flight checklists.

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Original post by ChurchSkiz I was gonna write an article on this actually. Touch screens have a beneficial impact for SOME applications. They really can enhance some hardware experiences. However, they should not be replacing ALL input devices (like on phones, computers, mp3 players, etc.). Screen-touching drastically slows me down on iPhones, tablets, and my Zune. Yeah it seems cool, but I really don't need to try and touch a 5x5 button with mammoth hands when a d-pad is quicker and more accurate. I'm hoping the fad dies soon and manufacturers quit trying to "get cute." Keyboard and mouse works well, it doesn't need to change.

Dpads have been around for 40-50 years if not more. Touch screens have been in the main stream for like 20 (depending on what you consider main stream) and only really come into popular use in the past 5.

Sure the way you use a touch screen NOW sucks, but that's because we are adapting our keyboard/mouse interfaces to touch screens. Once we have touchscreen interfaces down, they will probably be much more effective once people get used to them.

This is similar for voice recognition. Even in the past 3 years I've noticed huge improvements in it. I doubt any single input device will replace the keyboard and mouse, but I don't find it hard to imagine that the bulk of input today could be handled by 2-3 new input devices.

@OP, I think something like a hybrid system similar to kinect wouldn't be too far off in the future. Imagine having 10-13 depth sensing cameras that could feed skeletal data with great accuracy (we get decent accuracy with 1 camera in kinect. Imagine the accuracy from 3-4 separate cameras on you with higher resolutions than kinect currently has). Suddenly your TV, walls, and kitchen all become potential "point screens". You point at something and the system figures out where your eye and finger are to figure out what you're pointing at, then you say, "What's this?" or whatever and it pops up on the nearest tv or on your phone. Once you have accurate skeletal data, anything can be turned into a touch screen among other things. Pair that with voice recognition and audio feedback that works even a fraction better than today and I'd be set for 90% of the stuff I do on my computer.

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Original post by Alpha_ProgDes Do you think 20 to 30 years from now? Touchscreens will be ubiqituous? People will be typing on a e-paper (or cardboard) made to look like a keyboard, while Kinect is actually doing the inputting. Or even Kinect turning your arm to a mouse so you can Minority Report your desktop. Will Wiimote be a standard into pointing devices or input devices?

Keyboards with travel and tactile feedback will never disappear as long a text is in use. All the RSI whines will become deafening an a short time without input device ergonomics, and for good reason.

Touchscreen are already ubiquitous. They have only limited use on a desktop system, not because Microsoft Windows applications are designed around the 3-button mouse (that is a killer reason, but Microsoft is not forever) but again because of ergonomics. We found in our research that touch surface use on a regular basis (as opposed to occasional basis, like with a phone) is best performed on a "drawing board" surface, almost flat but canted at a slight angle like a draftman's table. Other configurations caused to much fatigue or awkward wrist positioning.

When I worked with voice recognition 20 years ago, it was crap. I've hear rumours it's improved, but I haven't seen proof. Voice recognition would be good for some input but not exclusively. It's too slow for most tasks. Try timing how long it would take you to describe aloud what you normally do with a computer.

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Though the keyboard and mouse has lasted 40 years as an unbeatable combo...

30 years ago we used keypunches and line printers to communicate with the computer, which was in another city (remember, high speed meant 1200 baud on your acoustic coupler). We had heard rumours about newfangled technologies like magnetic storage drums and automatic tape loaders. Mice were still a few years in the future. What history have you been reading?

My favoured device would be the neural input. Just a little connector (I imagine an RJ-45) in your wrist, like in Samuael R. Delaney's "Nova". Kind of a milder version of the neural connector in The Matrix.

Personally I really don't like the idea of having my whole house wired for high res motion capture cameras so my computer can try and guess what I'm trying to do.


Frankly, I rather have to press a few buttons to turn my microwave on than be left wondering if some perv of a hacker is watching me when I go to my kitchen for a drink in the middle of the night.

I love my clicky keyboard, I think the movement to rubber dome was bad... Going to touch screen would be brutal in every respect.

+10 for satisfying tactile and auditory feedback.

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Original post by Bregma When I worked with voice recognition 20 years ago, it was crap. I've hear rumours it's improved, but I haven't seen proof. Voice recognition would be good for some input but not exclusively. It's too slow for most tasks. Try timing how long it would take you to describe aloud what you normally do with a computer.

how long would it take you to use a computer if all you used was a mouse or a keyboard (not both). It's very unlikely that the KB/M will be replaced by a single technology. Most likely is that it will be replaced by a combination of more efficient technologies.

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Personally I really don't like the idea of having my whole house wired for high res motion capture cameras so my computer can try and guess what I'm trying to do.

You could have the same fear of any technology. As long as it's right 99% of the time, what does it matter if all it's doing is guessing? Some of the best shortcuts in computer use are the computer guessing what you want to do.

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Frankly, I rather have to press a few buttons to turn my microwave on than be left wondering if some perv of a hacker is watching me when I go to my kitchen for a drink in the middle of the night.

Would you rather use notebooks than be left wondering if some perv of a hacker is keylogging every search and thing you type on your computer? Everything comes at a cost. The success of the product depends on whether the cost is worth the benefit. Someone could have similar complaints about GPS in your phone, but here we are with GPS in almost every phone sold today.

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Original post by way2lazy2care Would you rather use notebooks than be left wondering if some perv of a hacker is keylogging every search and thing you type on your computer? Everything comes at a cost. The success of the product depends on whether the cost is worth the benefit. Someone could have similar complaints about GPS in your phone, but here we are with GPS in almost every phone sold today.

I don't know about you, but I don't think pervs would be overly interested in my searches of openGL functions, which weekend is thanksgivings, etc, etc, etc.

Me walking around after midnight in the buff? A wee bit more personal, and something no one else should ever have to see.

i don't think input of the future is one size fit all kind of thing, maybe more laser focused.

but as for keyboard and mouse replacement - i think dragon naturally speaking kind of software combined with this brain activity reader (that currently allow you to move mouse and play solitaire). imagine writing a forum posting by thinking about it.

heck, even if it fast and stable enough to actually replace mouse in this few years, I would use it.

image using a 3d application or paint software, all using your brain.

as for the one size fit all thing - now there is a white board that can print out what you draw / write on it - good for office setting. pen that record what you write / draw. 3d trackball for 3d modelling. etc. etc.

as for touch screen, i don't know about other people - but if I have the cash, I would go out and buy this WACOM table and monitor combination right away.

http://www.wacom.com/cintiq/

but of course, maybe because it fit what i like to do (3d animation / graphics ).

anyway, that's my 2 cent.

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Original post by FableFox as for touch screen, i don't know about other people - but if I have the cash, I would go out and buy this WACOM table and monitor combination right away.

We've had a lot of trouble with Wacom, and nTrig is seriously broken. What works? The 3M touchscreen monitors work well, but what I end up using every day for testing touch stuff is the Apple Magicpad. Its just, uh, magic.

Oh, and pens aren't the same as touch. Pens are good for graphics input but terrible for most UI work. What you need for every day interaction is multitouch like this baby. Once you try that, it's hard to go back to a mouse.

For what my opinion is worth:

I'm reminded of this TED presentation. Looks nice, but functionally useless. The things he is doing could be done so much easier with a mouse or a couple of keyboard shortcuts.

I don't think the mouse and keyboard combination will be going anywhere anytime soon. You need to be careful though how you define things, as there isn't a difference between a keyboard and a touchscreen keyboard or the e-paper, they still give the human the same interface (i.e. a QWERTY keyboard), but how they present that interface is different. The BlindType system that has been mentioned is again a QWERTY keyboard but with a different presentation.

Irrelevant of the presentation of the interface, will the concept of the QWERTY keyboard be going away? Not likely, there is very little on the horizon that can give the ease of alphanumeric input as a keyboard. Voice recognition? Well, lets just say that I seem to be able to type quicker and more accurately using my head than voice recognition software.

The only way different interfaces will appear like natural body motions like the TED talk demonstrates is if they are designed for a specific application, but even then I struggle to see how this would have greater benefit over a mouse, which as already stated requires far less effort than waving your arms all over the place all day long.

NB.